


Criminally Bad Flirting

by kate882



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe-No Capes, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 05:34:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12029238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate882/pseuds/kate882
Summary: Jason and Dick meet through their shared Criminal Justice class.





	Criminally Bad Flirting

Dick had been sitting next to Jason Todd in his criminal justice class for about two weeks and they had hardly spoken two words to each other. 

Not because Dick wasn't a friendly person, but Jason gave off pretty strong ‘leave me alone’ vibes.

Dick had introduced himself with a bright smile that generally charmed most people he talked to and a cheerful, “Hi there, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Dick,” on their first day of class.

Jason had stared at him for a moment, before muttering “too easy” to himself and turning back to his notebook. Dick was kind of grateful for the verdict, seeing as the jokes about his name hadn’t seemed too easy for most people, but he still wished his desk mate was a little more communicative.

“Jason Todd,” the guy threw out, seemingly as an afterthought. Dick would take what he could get.

So Dick didn't really know much about him. Oh sure, he heard what people  _ said  _ about Jason. Loner type, hard to tell if he was in the class to learn how to fight criminals or become one with the whole bad boy look and aloof persona thing he had going, lives alone, and either a total jerk or secretly has a heart of gold depending on who was talking. 

Being the adopted son of Bruce Wayne though, Dick was familiar with gossip and tried not to partake.

What Dick knew about Jason was that he never took notes in class. He had a notebook out every day, but Dick had yet to see him write anything down in it. He seemed to spend the whole time doodling. If he was listening to the professor he gave no indication that Dick could see. He knew that Jason rode a motorcycle since he saw him pull up to the building on one once. Either Jason smoked or he lived with someone who did, because the smell of cigarettes was usually clinging to him. And he knew that Jason was ridiculously hot.

He also was pretty sure Jason knew that last part. The first time he'd caught Dick looking he'd sent him a sharp smile and a wink before looking back down to his drawing. And he never seemed all that bothered when Dick would get distracted looking at him. Dick would almost think he didn’t notice after that first time if Jason didn’t occasionally glance his way when it happened before going back to his notebook.

And now they were two weeks in and they had their first assignment.

“What are you writing your paper on?” Dick asked, even though most of his attempts at conversation hadn’t gotten him very far.

“Looking for ideas?” Jason asked, putting his notebook away and getting up to presumably go to his next class.

“Oh, always. Papers aren’t really my thing. Unpopular opinion, but I’m more of a presentation kinda guy,” Dick told him with a grin.

Jason looked him up and down. “Yeah. That makes sense for you.” And then he walked out without actually answering Dick’s question. Which was maybe it’s own answer, but Dick was still trying really hard with the whole not leaping to conclusions thing.

And then a pretty girl was trying to ask him about the paper, so he turned his attention to her for the moment, putting Jason out of his head.

* * *

Jason stared critically at his paper and the single red mark on it, and Dick honestly wasn’t sure why he looked upset with it. He still had a ninety eight, but got points off for a typeo. Dick supposed he must have actually been paying attention in the lectures, despite the appearances saying otherwise.

“Looks like you did good,” Dick observed.

Jason just shrugged, stashing the paper in his bag, and sparing a glance for Dick’s ninety one. “Not your thing, huh?”

“Would have been a one hundred if it was a presentation,” Dick replied honestly. “Oh, but hey, can you do me a favor?”

Jason’s lips tilted downward a bit, but he raised an eyebrow, prompting Dick to continue. “I'm gonna be out next class, Bruce’s birthday, so can you text me what I miss?” He jotted down his number on one of the pages of his own notebook and passed it to Jason, who was now smirking at him.

“You trying to get my number, pretty boy?”

Dick grinned and batted his eyelashes. “You think I'm pretty?”

Amusement flashed across Jason’s eyes, and he took the paper, sticking it in his notebook, that was basically a sketch pad at this point, before putting the book in his bag. He winked at Dick as he swung his bag over his shoulder and headed out the door.

* * *

Dick had just expected a short text telling him the subject of the lecture. What he got was pictures of notes Jason had taken in class, detailing what had been covered along with his own running commentary, in neat hand writing. He wrote more than Dick normally would in class too.

_ No doodles? I'm shocked.  _ He texted and got back the eye rolling emoji.  _ Didn't take you for an emoji kinda guy.  _ He added a winking face and got the middle finger emoji for his trouble.  _ Thank you for the notes though, I really appreciate it.  _ He didn't get a reply to that. He saved Jason’s number to his phone. Strictly for if he needed to text him about class again. Of course.

* * *

Roy had gone to highschool with Dick, and they'd even gotten along well enough, but Roy had kind of dropped off the map their senior year.

Now they were roommates in college, but they didn't interact too much. Roy wasn't around much between class, work, and staying most nights elsewhere. Dick just figured he had a girlfriend or boyfriend he was staying with most of the time.

So Dick couldn't say he really knew him super well, but he still thought he should have at least known Jason was his best friend.

Which he found out when Jason showed up at the door to Dick and Roy’s dorm, with helmet hair from the ride over, said helmet tucked under his arm, and a leather jacket slung over his shoulder. He really did look the part of the bad boy with the heart of gold from some chick flick. “Heya pretty boy, Roy here?”

“I think he's in the kitchen downstairs. You two know each other?”

“Yep, best friends. And his car broke down so I'm giving him a ride to work. Or I would be if he could remember his schedule apparently.” Jason sounded mildly annoyed and Roy picked that moment to show up.

“Dude, what are you doing here?” He asked around a mouthful of sandwich.

Jason gave him a  _ look. _ “You asked me to be here. For your shift today.”

Roy choked. “Shit!” He ran into the room rifling around his closet until he found his uniform, quickly changing. “Let's go,” he said, shirt half on and Jason rolled his eyes.

“Finish you're fucking food, man. It's an eight hour shift; you've got time.”

Roy froze for a second and finally glanced at the time on his phone. “Oh. Yeah. Good idea.” He finished pulling the shirt on and picked up the sandwich he'd dropped on his desk.

“Wanna come in?” Dick offered, and Jason shrugged, stepping inside.

“Hey, so why didn't you tell me you were rooming with Dick?”

Roy glanced up at Jason with a furrowed brow. “Cause I didn't know you guys knew each other.”

“We’re in criminal justice together,” Dick supplied.

Roy gave him a blank look. “I thought you were a chem major.”

Dick might have judged, but he only knew Roy was a psych major because of the psych books that sometimes laid around the room. “That’s a gen ed class,” Dick told him. Roy just shrugged, continuing to eat his sandwich at a speed which made it impressive that he hadn’t choked.

“Oh hey, my professor canceled my night class today, so I told Kori not to worry about picking you up from work, I’ve got it covered,” Jason told Roy, absentmindedly tossing his red helmet between his hands.

Dick looked between them. It seemed like too much coincidence, but he figured he’d venture to ask. “Kori? Long red hair, green eyes?”

Two sets of eyes landed on him. “Dude, do you know everyone I know?” Roy asked incredulously, confirming Dick’s suspension.  

“Maybe? I’m popular,” Dick said, offering a sheepish grin. “She’s my ex girlfriend, how do you guys know her?”

Jason was giving him a look that Dick wasn’t sure how to interpret before he started laughing, and honestly it wasn’t fair. He was already ridiculously gorgeous without having a nice laugh too. “Oh God, so Dick wasn’t an insult, it was just your name. Things make so much more sense.”

Well, at least he knew she talked about him. He wasn’t sure how flattering the descriptions were though given Jason’s reaction.

“She lives with me and she’s dating Roy now,” he clarified, and honestly Dick never thought he’d be glad to hear that one of his exes was dating someone else, but having that information follow the fact that she was  _ living with  _ Jason, who Dick was starting to take a real interest in, was a sort of relief in a weird way.

He still felt the unpleasant feelings that came with hearing an ex had moved on when you were single, even though he was happy for her if she was happy since they hadn’t ended on bad terms or anything like that, but maybe he had a shot if he tried something with Jason.

Roy shoved the last bite of food in his face and started heading for the door. “Hope this doesn’t make the roommate thing weird, bye dude, gotta go,” he called over his shoulder.

“It’s really totally fine,” Dick called back and Jason gave him a short wave that Dick returned before Jason was walking off after Roy.  

* * *

“What happened to your face?” Dick asked with no small amount of concern as he took in Jason's busted lip while waiting for class to start a little over a week later.

Jason shot him a grin that looked painful, but if it hurt at all Jason wasn't giving him any indication. “Wow, Grayson, harsh. Not all of us can look flawless before noon you know.”

Dick just looked at him expectantly, and pretended not to notice people sitting around them trying to subtly listen in. He noted that Jason’s knuckles were a bit worse for wear, and could take a guess as to how he'd gotten his busted lip.

Jason shrugged. “You should see the other guy,” was all he would say on the matter.

* * *

It turned out that Jason wasn't just saving face talking about the other guy.

“Someone did  _ what _ ,” Dick exclaimed later that day, while eating lunch with Barbara.

“Tried to steal my bag”

Dick had to wonder what kind of asshole would try to steal from a girl in a wheelchair.

“But your friend stopped him before I could throw something at his head.” Barbara had deadly aim, and Dick had no doubt that she could have taken her potential thief down despite not being able to use her legs and not having the purse that housed her pepper spray and taser.

“My friend?”

“Yeah, dark hair, white streak, blue eyes, super hot, leather jacket. Didn't have to introduce himself for me to know he's this Jason guy you've been going on about for the last few weeks. It's a pretty distinctive look,” she said after taking a sip of her drink. “Had the guy on the ground in no time, and only took one hit himself. Probably hit the dude a few more times than needed, but my laptop was in that bag with my project on it, so I can only feel so bad about that.”

Dick felt mildly reassured to know that Jason hadn't just been picking random fights like some people in the criminal justice department were already whispering about after this morning.

“So, speaking of Jason, why haven’t you put any moves on that boy yet?”

“I was considering it, but then I found out he lives with Kori.”

Barbra had the decency to look sympathetic, which was more than he’d gotten from Tim when he’d picked the kid up from high school to drive him to Metropolis. You’d think helping him meet his secret boyfriend would earn him some emotional support, but apparently not.

“Are they dating?”

“Huh? Oh no, she’s dating his best friend, who’s my roommate,” he explained. “It’s just weird, right? Like, what if I do get him to go out with me, and then we go back to his place and she’s there. Or he’s one of those people who won’t date his friend’s exes even when said friend has moved on with another friend. So then I have to sit next to him for the rest of the semester and have it be awkward because he rejected me.”

“Then go back to your place and let his best friend spend the night with his girlfriend at Jason’s place. Sounds like a pretty convenient set up, if you guys can coordinate date nights.” Dick could admit that maybe Barbara had a point. “And honestly, if you’re that worried about it just talk to Kori.”

“I haven’t talked to Kori in ages though.”

Barbara was giving him the look that he knew meant she wasn’t taking no for an answer. “Dick Grayson, I can personally guarantee that you are perfectly capable of communicating with your exes, as few and far between as they may be.”

‘Few and far between’ may be a bit of an understatement. Despite his reputation as a playboy, he’d really only dated two people and one of them was sitting across from him and the other was living with the guy he was currently interested in. His life felt like a bad sitcom.

“Okay, yeah probably, but I don’t know if he’s interested, and I’m not going to talk to her about it before figuring that out. She’d probably try to help by telling him or something.”

“Hmm, trying to help doesn’t sound like you think she’d make it weird. So, what I’m getting from this is that you’re just being a coward.”

“Rude,” he muttered, stealing one of her carrots. He didn’t deny it though.

* * *

He spent about a week talking himself into trying to make a move, so he’d determined that today was the day.

The fact that Jason walked in looking like hell didn’t bode well for his chances. His hair was a mess, he had dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, and he was clutching an energy drink in hands that held a slight tremor, indicating that the drink probably wasn’t the first of it’s kind. Dick could recognize the signs of a student who’d been drowning in work from a mile away.

He soldiered on anyway. He figured bad pickup lines were a good way to go. If they didn’t work they usually at least got people to laugh and could be played off as a joke. “Are your legs tired? Cause you’ve been running through my mind all day,” he said with his trade mark charming Wayne smile. 

Jason glanced up at him from where he’d been rifling in his bag for his note book. “I have two papers due and a test today. If I’m tired it’s got nothing to do with you, Grayson,” he said flatly.

Dick winced in sympathy, and took his that as his cue to back off for the day, leaving Jason to nurse his energy drink.

As rejections went, it wasn’t his best, and he got a few pats on the shoulder from friends who had heard throughout the day.

* * *

He gave it a few days before trying again, noting that Jason looked much better today, and thus might be more receptive to Dick’s attempts at flirting. Which, admittedly, weren’t great when he was actually interested in someone.

He practically lived and breathed charm and flirtatious remarks around people he didn’t care about, but as soon as he actually wanted it to go somewhere all of that seemed to go out the window.

“Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk by again?”

Jason laughed at him this time. “Dick, we’ve been sitting next to each other for a few months now, I think you’re a little past time for first sight.”

Okay, well… that was a totally fair point, and Dick found himself chuckling as well.

“It’s not my best line,” he admitted.

“I don’t know, that one the other day was pretty bad too. My opinion might be a bit biased though, since you gave it to me while I was running on forty two hours without sleep and had plans to be up for another ten.”

Dick let out an impressed whistle. “Jesus. What classes were killing you like that so I can avoid them in the future.”

“Unless you’re also aiming to double major with a Lit degree, you’re probably safe. The test was for Psychopathology, and that wasn’t too bad, but the two papers were for British Lit and my Shakespeare class, so probably nothing for you to worry about.”

Well all of that was new information to Dick.

“What does one do with a combination of a criminal justice degree and an English degree?” Dick asked curiously. “Write a murder mystery novel?”

Jason snorted. “Close. Except I hate mystery novels, so probably not. I’m gonna be a cop, but being a writer seems like a decent side job.”

Dick wanted to question it further, ask Jason about what he wanted to write, but it was time for class to start, so he let it go and Jason resumed his doodling.

* * *

Kori ended up finding him.

Dick was studying in the library when she sat down across from him.

“Uh, hey, it’s been a little while,” he said, offering her a friendly smile.

“It has. I have missed speaking with you.”

“You have?”

She gave him a small smile. “We were friends before we were together,” Kori reminded him. “I’ve missed that.”

“Is that why you’re here?”

“No, but if it helps us to start talking again, I wouldn’t mind that outcome. I’m here to talk about Jason.”

Dick put his textbook down. “Is he okay?”  

She nodded. “He is, but he is concerned about the fact that we have dated before.”

Dick ran the words through his head. Jason must be at least a little bit interested to be worried about that. But he also wasn’t about to try and make Kori uncomfortable. “Is it? Because I’ve already expressed my interest since learning that you two are friends and live together. So he has to know it doesn’t bother me. But if it bothers you I’ll step back. I don’t want to come between you and your friend.”

“I am happy in my current relationship. And I wish nothing but the same for you. If you and Jason can be happy together it would make me very happy for the both of you,” she told him, and Dick couldn’t find any insincerity in her face or voice. And they’d never been great at lying to each other, so he was pretty sure he’d be able to tell.

“Then why is he worried about it?”

“Because I have not told him this yet. I wanted to speak with you first. To make sure that we were in agreement. I needed to see for myself that you would be fine with this before allowing my friend to put his heart on the line.” Kori smiled at him. “A precaution I’m sure you can understand.”

“A united front of sorts then,” Dick agreed, knowing what she meant. They needed to see each other. It was all fine and good to say they were fine with it when they hadn't really seen each other since the break up. It was all just in theory. They both needed to be sure they could handle it in practice. And he'd say they were doing a pretty good job.

“Exactly. And I think I will be telling him to go for it with you.”

Dick smiled wide at her, and they exchanged small talk for the next few minutes before her phone started buzzing.

“I have to go. I'm meeting Roy, but,” she looked at him consideringly, “we should catch up sometime. I really have missed being your friend, Dick.”

He jotted down his phone number on a piece of notebook paper and tore it out, passing it to her. “Just let me know when and where.”

* * *

“If I say I’ll go out with you will you keep whatever god awful pickup line you’re about to drop to yourself?” Jason asked as soon as Dick opened his mouth to do just that.

“I wasn’t going to drop a god awful pick up line,” Dick lied.

“Oh?”

“I was going to drop an  _ amazing  _ pickup line.”

“Really now? Well then let’s hear it.” Jason smirked at him, crossing his arms over his chest.

“...Nope. You’ve insulted my flirting skills, so now you don’t get to hear it.”

“Ah, so it’s like that, huh? Now that I’ve called you out on it you’re too scared.”

“I’m not scared of anything. Except probably ghost, but that doesn’t seem related to this, and I’m honestly not sure why I mentioned it.”

Jason was laughing at him again. “Alright, pretty boy, well I can promise no ghosts on our first date, but come October, I’m dragging you to a haunted house,” he grinned at Dick, amusement shining in his eyes.  

“Your tone says you think I’ll be clinging to you the entire time, but your words say you’re going to be walking through a haunted house alone.”

Jason just smirked at him. “We’ll see.”

* * *

“No.”

“C’mon, it’s for a good cause.”

“I told you when we first started this you’d be going by yourself, babe. I don’t know why you expected anything different.” Dick crossed his arms over his chest.

“The haunted house is raising money for the hospital though. You love that kind of thing,” Jason argued.

“Then I’ll just donate. I don’t have to go. Have fun.”

Jason gave a put upon sigh, but the amusement in his eyes gave him away, and Dick eyed him suspiciously. “Alright, guess you gave me no choice.”

Dick didn’t move out of the way fast enough, and suddenly he found himself over Jason’s shoulder -and if Jason thought that hand on his ass was changing his mind he was dead wrong- as Jason started walking towards the haunted house on campus.

“Put me down!” He tried to sound affronted, but it was a little hard to do through the laughter.

“And let you miss out on all the fun? No way.”

“You can’t carry me all the way across campus.”

“You sure about that?”

No, not really. Dick was hardly small, but his muscle was more lean and compact, whereas Jason was tall with a broader frame, and Dick had seen him bench pressing at the gym. “You’re the worst.”

“Uh huh, sure Grayson. You’re gonna have fun and you know it.”

Dick smiled a little, safe in the knowledge that Jason couldn’t see it from their position. Because yeah, he probably was going to have fun.


End file.
